President asks Greeks to focus on three goals
President Prokopis Pavlopoulos received political leaders on Tuesday after calling on Greeks to display unity to achieve three “national goals.”
Those goals are “securing the country’s progress, defending the European project and bolstering our national interests and rights,” Pavlopoulos said in his New Year’s message.
Greeks have proven themselves to be “committed Europeans” with the sacrifices made over the course of the crisis years, he said, while lauding the people’s resilience. “History has shown us that the forces of Hellenism, the forces of our people and our nation, are unlimited,” he said.
Athens is doing all it can for “friendly and good neighborly relations” with Turkey, he said, adding that it supports the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s European and NATO prospects as long as the Prespes name deal is ratified, as well as a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem “as soon as possible.”
In his New Year’s message, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared that 2019 would be “the year of our country’s rebirth.”
Conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on citizens to help build “a new Greek dream.”
